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Consulate General of Belgium in Atlanta

Catastrophes can happen. Nobody is immune … Unfortunately. So please read carefully the following information [Flemish and French versions included below].

Keep the Consulate General of Atlanta informed of any changes in your addresses, emails, phones, births etcetera and spread the word to Belgians you might know and who haven’t registered yet at the Consulate General.

Belgian travelers should use the very useful Belgian Foreign Affairs’ tool Travellers Online allowing Belgians to register and give their contact information during their travels. This would help localizing our citizens in time of difficulties.

On June 1st, a complimentary seminar regarding doing business in Europe will be organized by Frazier & Deeter and Arnall Golden Gregory. What are some of the key business considerations to understand before taking the leap across the pond? This panel of experts will accelerate your learning curve.

The Consulate General of Belgium and the Belgian American Chamber of the South are pleased to invite to a lecture: “Belgium and the United States in an increasingly competitive world: turning points in economic history since 1945” by Kurt Guldentops.

Kurt Guldentops – originally from Antwerp (Belgium) – Ph.D. Candidate in History at the University of California – Los Angeles, will enlighten you about how Belgium and the US have fared over the last 70 years in a world economy characterized by the entry of a series of new (or renewed) centers of production. What was the response of established producers to catch-up competitors? Taking a long term view, you will see that catch-up is not only important to the great post war boom, but that the competition between established and emerging producers is crucial as well to understand the shape of the more turbulent decades since the 1970s.

Logistics

When – Wednesday, May 3, 2017 from 6 to 8 pm – This lecture will be followed by a reception.

Where – Belgian Residence

RSVP – This event is FREE, but registration is required. Click HERE to register
Please RSVP no later than Monday, May 1.​

The Consulate General at Atlanta adopts an new online appointment system starting May 1st 2017. All appointments for passport requests and renewals, to preregister your biometric data or to request a tourist visa for non-Belgians (if required – depending on nationality) will need to be made with the online system.

The link to the appointment system can be found on the related page on the topic of passports and visas of our website or by clicking here. Please consult the website to make sure you have the required documents for your application prior to making an appointment.

Flight DL 80 left gate F6, on Saturday 3/25 at 6.06 pm as scheduled. Loaded with 218 passengers and a crew of 12, the 767-400 aircraft was ready for its 4,912 nautical miles towards Brussels. Surprisingly only a handful of its occupants was aware that this was the first flight resuming the non-stop service between Atlanta and Brussels! Following the horrors of the awful attacks on Zaventem Airport and the Maelbeek metro station on Tuesday March 22nd, 2016, Delta Airlines had decided to shutter its direct flights between the cities.

Was it the real reason? Probably not … Passengers had already noticed a decrease in the flight schedules and their Atlanta destined planes filled with overbooked JFK-bound travelers. Obviously the decision to terminate this service was not well received, not only by the big companies but also by our local community. Many stories abound of people missing their connection to Brussels in New York due to the short lay-over. Not to mention that traveling back with chocolate-loaded luggage and exhausted kids through immigration at JFK was not something anybody would relish.

So Saturday was a huge thing. Gate F6 was heavily decorated with Belgian flags and the passengers were greeted by Papa Smurf [Grand Schtroumpf] and Hefty Smurf [Schtroumpf Costaud], dancing on the rhythm of the saxophone tunes played by Vinnie dressed in Belgian colors. A few short but convivial speeches crowned the event: Consul General Mr. William De Baets welcomed the crowd with his good sense of humor, introducing Larin Hector, General Manager Atlanta Worldport from Delta. The mic was then handled to Mr. Pieter De Crem, Belgian Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Former Deputy Prime Minister and Former Minister of Defence. They all made sure that everyone understood that the Smurfs, Adolph Sax and the distributed chocolate were Belgian made.
Mr. De Crem was the first on board followed by enthusiastic travelers who each received a goodie bag with a box of Neuhaus Classics and a miniature Smurf.

Delta flight schedules are updated every 3 months, based on many factors like projected bookings and types of available aircrafts. The daily non stop flight ATL-BRU takes off at 6.06 pm to reach Zaventem at 8.45 am … until further notice since Delta News indicates “the renewed Atlanta service will operate year-round with a daily service over the summer season.”

And a finale note: the movie “Smurfs, The Lost Village” is now in the theaters!

Join the Consulate General of Belgium in Atlanta for a lecture by Dr. John H. Morrow, Jr. commemorating the entry of the United States in World War I. The lecture will be followed by a light European style reception.

Join this luncheon, sponsored by the Consulate General of Belgium, with The Honorable Pieter De Crem, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade of Belgium, former Minister of Defense of Belgium on Thursday March 23rd at the Atlanta Metro Chamber. Mr. De Crem is visiting our city to celebrate the resuming of the direct flight between Atlanta and Brussels [first flight on Saturday March 25th].

Mr. De Crem will discuss ‘In the heart of Europe: Belgium, the EU and the transatlantic relationship in challenging times‘ with particular attention to:

The Consulate General of Belgium in Atlanta takes part in the Atlanta Francophonie Festival with a screening of “Tous les chats sont gris” for Belgian Movie Night on Tuesday March 21st, 2017. The screening will be followed by a Belgian-themed reception.

The Great War in Broad Outlines, a traveling exhibition commemorating World War I and honoring the centennial anniversary of the U.S. entry into the War, opens in Atlanta on March 6, 2017 at Atlanta History Center | 130 West Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30305. Told in more than 30 panels, the exhibition chronicles many events including the efforts of Herbert Hoover, as head of the U.S. Food Administration, in providing humanitarian relief to those starving in wartime Belgium.

The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has selected Atlanta as the only Southeastern venue to host the exhibition that honors the human sacrifice of more than 116,000 U.S. military in the “war to end all wars.”

This exhibition has been produced by the Belgian National Institute for Veterans and Victims of War and sponsored by the Consulate General of Belgium in Atlanta, Honorary Consulate of Belgium in Miami and UPS. Co-sponsored by the European and Eurasian Studies Program, Miami-Florida Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, Department of History Department of Politics and International Relations and Honors College.